


The Bookshop and The Bakery

by laurapxlmer



Category: Larry Stylinson fandom, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Baker Harry, Bakery AU, Depression, F/M, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mpreg, Parent Harry, Parent Louis, Photographer Harry, Self-Harm, Writer Louis, bookshop au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-23 07:29:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/923586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurapxlmer/pseuds/laurapxlmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is lonely until a pretty photographer walks into his bookshop // rewritten january '16</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bookshop and The Bakery

**Author's Note:**

> ~ originally written 2013, rewritten jan 2016 because i'm putting off writing two new fics ~
> 
> *be sure to read italics in part III for self-harm stuff, be careful!!

**I. Louis**

 

Louis probably shouldn’t be alone so often.

 

His friends all have boyfriends and girlfriends and _lives_ ; Zayn is having a _baby_ soon. And all Louis has is books – old, used books that no one loves anymore.

 

He’s okay with it, though, most of the time. The woman who owns the bakery next door, Barbara, loves books and picks up a new one each week. She and Louis have a trade going on: she brings him breakfast every day but Sunday, and she can have as many books as she likes. They often share customers; people reading in Louis’s shop with tea and biscuits from Barbara’s, people reading in Barbara’s bakery.

 

Across the street from Louis is a record shop run by Liam, someone Louis would consider a friend, though they don’t do much together. Liam is friends with Louis’s best mate since primary, Zayn, and sometimes tags along when Zayn and Louis go out Saturday nights. Niall, Liam’s boyfriend, is a music producer and songwriter who Louis knows less than he knows Liam. Niall and Liam have a large friend group, mostly bands and people Niall knows from work, and Louis isn’t close enough to go out with them once Zayn and Perrie have their baby.

 

No one really has room for Louis anymore, and Louis is probably less okay with that then he pretends to be.

 

***

 

Louis really wishes he didn’t have to spend his twenty-third birthday alone, but he is. There’s not much more snow than normal in London, but in Doncaster it’s coming down harder than it has in years, and Louis can’t get to his family. It’s forecasted to let up late morning tomorrow, so hopefully Louis will still get to spend Christmas with his family. His friends are all home or with family, so they’re throwing him a birthday party on New Year’s Eve.

 

But Barbara brought him a cupcake with a candle before she closed up shop and left for her daughter’s house, and he has a new-to-him copy of his favorite Christmas story, A Christmas Carol, and he’s had a few customers shopping for last minute gifts, so he isn’t too alone.

 

It’s half-eight when Louis closes long enough to go get his pajamas on – it isn’t much work leaving the shop open when he’s just sitting and reading – and grab a blanket from his flat above the shop. He makes a cup of hot chocolate in the Keurig behind the counter before settling in his favorite chair. It’s just in sight of the door, so potential customers can see the shop isn’t deserted and he can see when people come in.

 

Marley is explaining the chain wrapped around him to Scrooge when the bell above the door jingles and a wave of cold air hits Louis. He lays his book open on the armrest of the chair and slips on his slippers before making his way to the front of the shop.

 

He stops short when he sees the boy stumbling over the threshold with a mumbled ‘oops’.

 

This boy is probably the most gorgeous person to ever walk into Louis’s shop since it was passed down to him two years ago. He’s got chocolate curls and strawberry lips, his skin tinted pink from the cold. His coat is wrapped tightly around him but not buttoned, his scarf Christmas colors, and an old camera hangs from his neck.

 

Louis walks over calmly – because, no matter what Zayn or Lottie tell you, he is a Calm, Collected person especially when around cute boys. “Hi,” he says. “Can I help you with anything? Would you like me to take your coat and scarf?”

 

“I, um,” the boy starts in a painfully deep voice, “I actually have to be somewhere soon. But I’m a, uh, photography student, and was walking by and saw this cute shop and was wondering if I c—“

 

“Take whatever pictures you need, love,” Louis says, cutting off the boy mid-ramble. He walks to get his mug and then behind the counter, getting well out of the way of the camera. “Would you like tea or hot chocolate? I have a Keurig, unless you’d like a real cuppa then I can go upstairs and make you one.”

 

“No, thank you,” the boy says, and waits, staring at Louis.

 

Louis blinks, a bit confused. “Are you going to take your picture?”

 

“Well,” the boy looks down to where his feet are pointing towards each other, “I wanted to take _your_ picture, actually.” Louis is flattered, but starts to protest. The boy races to continue before Louis can get a word out. “See, you just looked so cozy and perfect when I was walking by, and my professor says I need to take pictures of more people. He’s worried I don’t get out enough unless I’m taking pictures, and he—“

 

“Okay, okay,” Louis chuckles, “you can take my picture. How do you want me?”

 

The boy beams. “Exactly like you were before. Just sit and read, I’ll tell you when I’m done.”

 

Louis shakes his head with a small smile, because why _on earth_ is this beautiful thing taking his picture? He picks up his book and covers his lap, settling down to start reading. He hears the boy, whose name he’s yet to learn, moving around him. Louis’s mug is placed back where it was on the floor at his feet, and then his blanket is tugged down just an inch or two. It must make sense to the photography student, so Louis ignores him and keeps reading.

 

Marley is telling Scrooge about the ghosts that will come to visit him now, and Louis isn’t reading so much as skimming while remembering the first time he read this book. It was grade six, and he’d been paired up with the first boy he’d had a crush on to read this chapter. He recalled the laughter that came from James’s friends and the groan from James himself when the teacher paired them together; Louis learned several years later just how homophobic James was. While Louis’s brain is thinking about James, he mentally scrolls through his Facebook while still half-reading the book in front of him. The last he heard about James was that his boyfriend had proposed, and it was to be a spring wedding –

 

“Done,” a deep voice announces happily, breaking Louis out of his reverie. “This is—“

 

“I’m sorry, it’s probably shit,” Louis apologizes immediately. “I kind of stopped reading and got lost in my head and—“

 

“No, no!” the photographer explains. “This is perfect. All of these shots are.”

 

“You… you took more than one?” Louis asks timidly. At the photographer’s nod, he asks, “Can I see them?”

 

They sit down and flip through the camera roll; there are pictures of the entire scene from four angles, and several detail pictures. There’s one of Louis turning the page, a picture of the way the blanket was falling off of the chair, one shot of Louis’s slippers next to his cocoa mug, the worn cover and spine of the book, and Louis’s face. There are at least ten different pictures of just Louis’s face, close up and far away, all from different angles with different expressions. Louis suddenly feels beautiful under this boy’s lens.

 

“I’m… these are perfect,” Louis says.

 

“Yeah,” the boy sighs next to him. “Oh! I haven’t even told you my name. ‘m Harry.”

 

Louis lets out a laugh. “Louis.”

 

“So, Louis, why are you alone on Christmas Eve?”

 

“Well,” Louis starts, “it’s actually my birthday.” And then Louis tells Harry his story – how his family is snowed in and he’d get stuck driving to them, how old he is, all about his siblings, how he came to own the bookshop – and Harry tells his.

 

It’s two in the morning when Harry pulls his phone out of his coat pocket and sees several missed calls and text messages from his mum, sister, and step-dad. He rushes around to get his scarf, coat, shoes, camera, and the book Louis gave him, worrying about how his mum is absolutely going to skin him alive and he’ll be the Christmas turkey this year.

 

Harry writes his number quickly on the inside of A Christmas Carol and kisses Louis on the side of his mouth, and then he’s gone.

 

Louis is pretty sure they aren’t anything, but he knows that they’re everything, and thinks that he quite likes not being alone.

 

**II. Harry**

 

Harry probably shouldn’t feel alone so often.

 

He’s hardly alone, either Niall is home or Nick is over or his large friend group is doing something. Lou and Nick took him into their group when he moved in with his sister fresh out of secondary, and Niall’s friends automatically accepted him when he moved in with Niall. Everyone is a laugh, and they all have a great time together, and he loves them.

 

But he doesn’t.

 

Harry’s lonely, but rarely alone, and he desperately wants to fall in love.

 

He’s always been a romantic, is the thing, and it’s probably not good for him. He’s not dumb, he knows people find him attractive and that some of those people want to have sex with him, but not many people want real relationships. Harry’s had sex a handful of times and he’s never been in love, and he wants that to change.

 

Some days Harry thinks he’ll fall in love with someone small and petite, someone who needs protection, someone to drown in Harry’s large jumpers while sitting on the counter to eat his culinary creations. Other days, he’s convinced it’ll be someone tall and muscular, someone to protect and care for him, someone not afraid to fuck him into next week.

 

It never occurred to Harry that those two people could be combined into the bookshop owner he took a picture of on Christmas Eve.

 

***

 

Two months after meeting Louis, they’re moving Harry’s stuff into Louis’s flat above the bookshop. Originally, Harry had asked Louis to move in with him, but it just wasn’t practical – Harry had gotten a job at the bakery next door, and Louis would never leave his shop.

 

Harry didn’t believe in love at first sight until he saw Louis that extremely snowy evening. His boy is afraid of thunder but not of scary movies, so they protect each other; Louis is small and drowns in Harry’s jumpers, but he’s muscular and can support both of them while fucking Harry against a wall.

 

Their first time was planned – in Harry’s mind, at least, because the first time they did anything more than occasional handjobs had to be _perfect_ – to be exactly two months after they met, except Zayn and Perrie’s baby decided she was ready to see the world one month early. They did it a week later, but instead of lit by firelight after a romantic homemade meal, it was lit by the telly after Chinese take-out.

 

Now, a year later, Harry tells everyone just how in love he is, and how happy he is with his perfect person.

 

**III. Fight**

_I’ll put a summary at the end of this bit in italics if you don’t want to read the self-harm part of this story. You can read the first part of this, I’ll put a little sign in when you should stop reading if you don’t want to read anything triggering. Stay safe, lovelies._

 

Thirteen months after Louis and Harry meet, Barbara dies.

 

Harry finds her asleep in her bed when he goes into work early one morning at the end of January. He calls 999 and weakly tells them what happens before calling Louis. After that he doesn’t really stop crying, because he loves this woman; she was like a grandmother to Harry, and she always took care of both him and Louis. Her scruffy old cat feels the same, because he hisses at the paramedics who take her from him before meowing pathetically on Harry’s lap. Louis holds Harry tightly all day, and both the bookshop and the bakery are closed for the day.

 

The bakery stays closed with a small sign on the door explaining why. The sign includes and obituary, and dozens of Barbara’s regulars show up to the funeral. She didn’t have much family; her husband had passed ten years prior, and all of her friends were dead or too sick to make it. Her recently divorced daughter and grandson came, as well as her younger sister and childhood friend.

 

It’s after the funeral that Harry is told that Barbara left him the bakery. When he asks Sarah, the daughter, about it, she simply says, “It means more to you than to me. Mum wanted you to have it, and I agreed.”

 

Harry’s tears turn to grateful and loving after that.

 

***

 

Louis loves all of Harry’s friends, and Harry loves all of Louis’s friends. He doesn’t know how he didn’t manage to meet Harry before, as he’d been Niall’s roommate and Louis had known Niall for years. Louis gets on splendidly with Gemma – although it was difficult at first, as she had to protect her baby brother – and Harry’s parents, even. Zayn, Perrie, and Liam all adore Harry, and it doesn’t hurt that, through Niall, Harry knows loads of famous singers and songwriters.

 

But Louis absolutely, 100% detests Nick Grimshaw.

 

He isn’t sure why, really. It could be his disgusting wardrobe or god-awful hair (he’s recommended shampoo several times, but Nick never takes him seriously), but it’s most likely his blatant, obvious-to-everyone-but-Harry crush on Louis’s boyfriend. Everyone advises Louis to ignore it, forget it, because Louis is Harry’s and Harry is Louis’s and Nick is alone.

 

Except he isn’t. He constantly pulls, gaggles of guys in his bed throughout the week; famous and not, more often than not only heard from once. It doesn’t make sense to Louis, because Nick is always an asshole – to his string of boyfriends, to Harry a bit, but mostly to Louis. He picks on Louis’s height, his not-super-successful bookshop, his glasses, his clothes, and his book.

 

Louis doesn’t know why he allowed himself to be talked into writing a book. He wrote short stories, and one of them made its way to a publishing house. He was sought after by a publisher, Diane, who wanted him to write a young adult novel. When Louis admitted he didn’t have enough of a story to write a novel about, she told him to write his story. “Not a biography,” Diane had said, “but your story tweaked a little and given to a fictional character.”

 

He was to write about his life – growing up the only gay kid in a small town, how it felt when his adoptive dad left him after already having been left by his biological father. He was supposed to write about coming out, how he dropped out of uni when the bookshop he’d been working at was sold to him by the previous owner at an incredibly cheap price. He was told to write about Harry, their improbable meeting and their love story.

 

His first deadline is the first five chapters by November 1st; he has two chapters and it’s three days until November. He pushes away from the table in the bookshop he’s taken residence at and tucks his laptop away behind the desk. He flips the closed sign and heads over to the bakery, deciding a cuppa and a change of scenery is what he needs to get out the writer’s block.

 

He yells Harry’s name as he walks into the shop, only to see Jade, Harry’s only employee, standing solitary behind the counter. The thirty-something woman in the corner is glaring, and Niall’s there getting cupcakes for Liam. He talks to Niall a minute before walking upstairs, where Jade tells him Harry is.

 

The flat above the bakery is fairly plain; Harry and Louis use it for storage and guests, and all of the furniture in it is Barbara’s. Louis stops two steps into the flat when he sees Nick and Harry huddled close together in the kitchen.

 

“… really stressed…” Louis can only pick out a few words, but hears that it’s Harry speaking. “… not working out…”

 

Nick is louder, though, and Louis hears what he says. “It’s a good thing you have a separate flat then, even if it is right next to him.”

 

_STOP READING_

 

That’s all Louis sticks around for, because it doesn’t take a genius to realize that Harry’s breaking up with Louis and moving out. He’s probably sleeping with Nick, as well, because it’s Louis’s luck.

 

Louis doesn’t care when he slams the door to the flat behind him, ignores Niall and Jade calling him as he runs next door. Louis doesn’t really pay attention to what he’s doing. He makes it up to his flat, hand he’s throwing clothes, Harry’s clothes, into a suitcase. He tosses it into the living room. There, he sees a framed picture of him and Harry, their first date, and he smashes it on the ground before crumpling next to it and crying.

 

He doesn’t mean to, really, but he’s so upset and wants the pain to end, wants to distract himself from what he’s feeling; there’s broken glass right there, it’s so easy to forget the five years clean.

 

He hears Harry coming into the shop and calling, “Louis!” on the third cut across his wrist; that’s when he starts getting dizzy. Then Harry is right in front of Louis, asking _what happened, what’s wrong,_ and _I’m calling emergency, Louis please stay with me._

 

Louis manages to tell Harry to fuck off to his new boyfriend before passing out.

 

***

_So, little recap: Barbara died and left Harry the bakery; Louis is stressed from writing a book about him and Harry; Louis overhears Nick and Harry talking, assumes what they’re talking about is bad, then goes home and self-harms. Don’t worry, Harry comes to the rescue. The next part talks about it, but there’s nothing triggering (I don’t think)._

 

**IV. Promise**

 

Louis spends the night in the hospital, and has to assure two therapists that this was a freak incident and definitely won’t happen again. He was clean for five years, he deserves some credit.

 

Harry, of course, apologized and explained as soon as Louis woke up and told Harry why he did what he did. They were talking about how stressed the book was making Louis, and how the book deal wasn’t working out because of the pressure it put on him.

 

Thankfully, though, it inspired Louis to write about his adolescence more; coming out, ‘counter-acting the gay’ with being the star footie player, bullies, his first boyfriend, and his mental illness and self-harm.

 

The doctors still recommended that Louis not be alone. He sat in the shop writing still, just with Lou and her toddler, Perrie and her baby, Niall and his guitar, Liam and his worrying, or Zayn and his smoking.

 

Despite Louis assuring everyone just how fine he is, Harry always wants someone with him. “You’re writing some triggering chapters, baby, I just want to make sure you’re safe,” is what he repeats to Louis every time they argue about it. Louis still stands by his belief that he doesn’t need a babysitter all hours.

 

Louis writes about their friends, though. How dedicated they all are, how they all fit together like a puzzle. He loves each one of them fiercely, and he loves the half that hates Nick more.

 

Two weeks after The Incident, Harry and Louis are making homemade cheese pizza – Louis _knows_ that Harry turned down pepperoni because a knife would be involved – and Harry clearly has something to say. When they sit down on the couch after eating, Louis says, “Fucking spit it out, H.”

 

“What?” Harry asks, looking up from Instagram.

 

“You’ve had something to say all evening, please say it before I go mad trying to figure out what it is.”

 

“It’s just,” Harry starts slowly, “I love you.”

 

Louis laughs. “I know, stupid. I love you as well.”

 

“No.” Harry shakes his head. “You don’t understand.” Louis opens his mouth to talk, but Harry shushes him. “No, stop. You don’t. You almost took yourself from me, Lou. If I would have come upstairs ten minutes later, five minutes later, I wouldn’t have lasted a day. I just—I love you so much, and it hurts so bad to know that I caused you enough pain to make you—“ And of course he’d start crying. Louis wipes his tears away and kisses him softly.

 

“We’ve talked about this, H. I know. I’m so so—“

 

“Don’t apologize, Louis Tomlinson. You are my entire world and I almost lost you.” Harry draws in a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m crying, I’m not the one who—“ Harry has to stop again, and Louis wipes more tears before laying his head on Harry’s chest. “Lou, I know it’s a lot, and I won’t ask you to promise never to do it again. But… I need you to talk to me the next time you feel like…”

 

“I promise,” Louis whispers. “I promise, baby, I won’t ever again, and if I feel like it I’ll talk to you about it. Okay?”

 

“Okay,” Harry sighs, then makes a split-second decision. He slips out from under his boyfriend and gets on his knees in front of the couch.

 

“H, I love you, but now isn’t the time to suck my dick, yeah?”

 

Harry laughs. “Shut up for a minute, yeah?” He pulls out a box from his back pocket and opens it to reveal two almost-identical silver rings. They both have 24.12.13 engraved on the inside; one has an emerald and smaller than the one with a sapphire. “Since we’re already crying and making promises…” Louis’s hands fly to his mouth, but Harry can see the smile reaching to his eyes and the tears. And fuck, if Louis isn’t the most beautiful person in the world. “Will you marry me?”

 

**V. Perfect**

Louis wanted a big family until his dad – adoptive, not biological – left their family; after that he sort of ignored the fact that one day he’d probably end up with a partner who wanted kids.

 

But then Harry came along, and from day one he could see himself having a huge family with this curly-headed boy. Even though that family was far in the future.

 

Or, it _was_ far in the future, until they discovered Harry could have children.

 

***

 

Louis is 41 and Harry is 39 when they finally decide to combine the bookshop and the bakery. They’d done the same to the flats years ago, remodeling everything so they wouldn’t ever have to leave but so they’d have four bedrooms, a real dining room, and a bigger kitchen and living room.

 

Coincidentally, it was the same week that Olivia, their oldest, decided to bring home her first girlfriend.

 

“She’s fifteen, Haz, that’s far too young to have a girlfriend,” Louis tells Harry the day their little girl is bringing her girlfriend to meet them. Harry’s making dinner and Louis is setting the table while the twins are in their room coloring.

 

“You were fourteen when you had your first boyfriend, and I was fifteen when I had my first girlfriend,” Harry reminds his husband. “Plus, if you think your day is bad, wait till you hear about mine. The asshole at the bookshop next to my bakery is tearing a giant hole in my wall.”

 

Louis smiles weakly. “I’ll see about getting that fixed.”

 

He still isn’t ready to meet this Diana girl, though, no matter how Harry tries to make him feel better. She’s two years older and doesn’t even go to the same school as Liv – she’s apparently Madeline Horan-Payne’s best friend’s older sister and they met at a birthday party two months ago.

 

When Louis expresses how he thinks Liv is too young to date, especially a seventeen-year-old, she points out, “You’re two years older than dad.”

 

“He was twenty and in uni when I met him, not an innocent fifteen-year-old,” Louis says, but it doesn’t stop the dinner from happening, and it doesn’t stop Liv from falling in love with her and saying yes to her proposal.

 

***

 

Louis is 49, though he refuses to say he’s any older than 40, and Harry is the hottest 47-year-old when their oldest daughter gets married. Ten-year-old twins Ilene and Ivan are the flower girl and ring barer, respectively, and Harry and Louis are still arguing about who’s walking Olivia down the aisle.

 

“Harry Edward Styles Tomlinson,” Louis growls as they’re (supposed to be) getting ready for the rehearsal. “You will walk our daughter down the aisle.”

 

“Or what?”

 

“I’ll run away with Niall and burn down the shops, you know I will.”

 

“I dare you,” Harry challenges. Not surprisingly, it ends in two rounds of angry sex – Harry rides Louis on the couch to get Louis to give in, then Louis ties Harry’s hands up and eats him out until he agrees to walk her down the aisle.

 

Eventually, Olivia decides that a dad on each arm would make the ceremony all the more better.

 

***

 

Louis pretends to have not cried at Liv’s wedding; Harry openly admits to it for both of them. They both make embarrassing speeches, as do Niall, Liv’s godfather, and Diana’s parents. Harry and Louis wait until the brides leave for their honeymoon to get absolutely plastered.

 

It’s after the reception – small enough to be held at the family’s favorite place, Tomlinson’s Bookshop and Bakery – Harry and Louis sit in the empty place, each with a sleeping twin on their lap.

 

Louis should probably be thinking about getting up to bed, or how they’re going to clean the entire downstairs with hangovers and two unhelpful ten-year-olds, but all he can think about is how absolutely perfect his life is.

 

There’s nothing more they could ever want.

 

_fin_

**Author's Note:**

> this is still shitty bc it was my first fic and it's hard to make it not shitty unless i deleted this or changed everything so
> 
> anyway, i'm hfflpffhoe on tumblr if you wanna chat :) the tumblr post for this is http://hfflpffhoe.tumblr.com/post/136658241914/the-bookshop-and-the-bakery-by-lpalms15-louis-is here if you'd like to reblog it! (someone teach me how to put links here omg)


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